Writing for US magazine Dossier, Anna Kaplan travels from Tasmania’s east coast to the Great Barrier Reef, discovering a country where the landscape shapes the way people live and a deep attunement with nature is found at every destination.
At Saffire Freycinet, set on the edge of Freycinet National Park, Kaplan walks the surrounding bushland with Palawa artist Mick Quilliam, learning how native plants such as kunzea are prized for both flavour and medicine. Every space at the lodge draws the eye towards the pink granite peaks of the Hazards, and the restaurant showcases local ingredients like wattleseed and kunzea alongside Tasmania’s cool-climate wines. “The luxury here is its connection to Tasmania,” Kaplan writes. Waders on, the trip also includes oysters shucked straight from the water at Freycinet Marine Farm.
Further north, the flight over the reef to Lizard Island Resort leaves Kaplan feeling “so small” amid the coral and turquoise water. With the island shared only with a campground and a research station, guests can step straight off the beach onto the reef, where blacktip reef sharks, stingrays and sea turtles glide past, and outer reef snorkelling reveals a new species around every corner.
To read the full article in Dossier, click here.
